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Bloomberg

McCarthy: California high-speed rail is too expensive

California’s $68.4 billion high-speed rail project is looking for too much money from the U.S. government and should be reconsidered, said California Representative Kevin McCarthy, the U.S. House’s third-ranking Republican.

“Maybe it’s time when we cut our losses,” McCarthy said today at a House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee hearing in Washington.

An additional $38 billion sought for the project from federal coffers would be more than the $31 billion a year Congress is seeking in annual additional revenue from a deal to resolve the year-end deadlines for automatic spending cuts and tax increases, he said.

Blowback

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For trains moving that fast, the rails need to be very well maintained. This project is set to construct rail and stations with NO trains running on it for several years. There is no money currently budgeted for rolling stock, it is simply construction of the road bed and stations. The metal thieves will have the unused infrastructure torn apart within months. It will be a never ending battle to keep the unused infrastructure in usable condition. It’s just crazy at so many levels it isn’t even funny.

Obama loves you, and has a wonderful plan for your life. Fast trains are part of Obama’s vision of a comprehensive, vast, and friendly public transportation system, where your race, class, gender, or sexual orientation should not be a barrier to simply traveling from point A to point B.

Obama is love. Everything is Obama.

Did I mention fossil fuels are evil? As is nuclear energy. Wind, sun, geothermal from the earth. These are environmentally friendly. Besides, Obama is able to stop the rise of the oceans, and the warming of the Earth, and provide good jobs. Well, the jobs may take some time. But someone so in touch with the seas and the Earth … we need to utilize that.

Obama. What manner of man is he, that even the Earth and seas obey him? He’s a Lightworker.

Obama loves you, and has a wonderful plan for your life. Fast trains are part of Obama’s vision of a comprehensive, vast, and friendly public transportation system, where your race, class, gender, or sexual orientation should not be a barrier to simply traveling from point A to point B.

Obama is love. Everything is Obama.

Did I mention fossil fuels are evil? As is nuclear energy. Wind, sun, geothermal from the earth. These are environmentally friendly. Besides, Obama is able to stop the rise of the oceans, and the warming of the Earth, and provide good jobs. Well, the jobs may take some time. But someone so in touch with the seas and the Earth … we need to utilize that.

Obama. What manner of man is he, that even the Earth and seas obey him? He’s a Lightworker.

Someone figured out once in the comments of a local paper that it would be cheaper to build a pair of airports, one in Northern California and one in Southern California at the end of existing commuter rail links and purchase an entire fleet of 737′s and run them at 30 minute intervals than this rail system costs to build and operate.